With Labor Day imminent, it is fitting to examine what a second Trump administration has in store for American workers. The best place to unearth this information is, of course, from within the deep recesses of the increasingly infamous, 920-page Project 2025, the MAGA blueprint for transforming America into a totalitarian state.
Project 2025 would largely eliminate child labor laws (page 595). If a child wants to work in a factory, slaughterhouse or coal mine, that’s fine with the drafters of a document infused with cruelty. Some deeply red states have already gotten a head start on this odious initiative (see Rant 738, April 28, 2023).
Federal child protection laws have been in place for almost 100 years. They were enacted at a time when injuries and deaths were all too common among children who went to work to help support their families. Incidents of limb loss and respiratory illness were legion. The Fair Labor Standards Act succeeded in mitigating this societal travesty (which a Supreme Court, almost as horrible as the current one, upheld) and orienting children’s focus from working in dangerous environments to getting an education.
This provision is arguably the worst anti-labor proposal the Trump cabal has in store for workers, but wait, there’s a lot more (space does not permit citing the entire Project 2025 anti-labor program. What follows is a selection):
Tens of thousands of non-political federal civil service workers would be fired and replaced with Trump loyalists (page 80). The 140 year-old merit system would be deep-sixed. This would in fact create a “deep state.”
Public employee unions would be banned (page 82).
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program would be eliminated (page 354). This highly successful program attracted thousands of highly qualified young people to public service in return for having their student loan debt forgiven after 10 years of government service and 120 direct loan repayments.
Labor and Wage Protections for Workers on Federal Projects would be repealed. (page 604). One effect of this would be to allow contractors to pay less than the prevailing regional wage.
Companies could stop paying overtime (page 592). Instead, employers could authorize time-off (compensatory time) on their schedule.
States could seek a waiver to opt out of federal overtime and minimum wage laws (page 605). This when the federal minimum wage is set at a piddling $7.25/hour.
Bosses could eliminate unions in the middle of a labor contract (page 603).
Also, the Project 2025 team urges Congress to pass Sen. JD Vance’s bill to let employers create their own bogus company-run unions (page 599).
There is a great deal more in Project 2025 to shock the conscience and make life even more miserable for workers, but you get the drift. If Trump manages to steal his way back into the White House, the malefactors who cobbled together this dreadful collection of medieval torments will not be far behind.
Project 2024 must be to keep these abominable haters and aspiring autocrats as far away from the levers of power as possible.
Dick Hermann
August 30, 2024
Project 2025 would largely eliminate child labor laws (page 595). If a child wants to work in a factory, slaughterhouse or coal mine, that’s fine with the drafters of a document infused with cruelty. Some deeply red states have already gotten a head start on this odious initiative (see Rant 738, April 28, 2023).
Federal child protection laws have been in place for almost 100 years. They were enacted at a time when injuries and deaths were all too common among children who went to work to help support their families. Incidents of limb loss and respiratory illness were legion. The Fair Labor Standards Act succeeded in mitigating this societal travesty (which a Supreme Court, almost as horrible as the current one, upheld) and orienting children’s focus from working in dangerous environments to getting an education.
This provision is arguably the worst anti-labor proposal the Trump cabal has in store for workers, but wait, there’s a lot more (space does not permit citing the entire Project 2025 anti-labor program. What follows is a selection):
Tens of thousands of non-political federal civil service workers would be fired and replaced with Trump loyalists (page 80). The 140 year-old merit system would be deep-sixed. This would in fact create a “deep state.”
Public employee unions would be banned (page 82).
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program would be eliminated (page 354). This highly successful program attracted thousands of highly qualified young people to public service in return for having their student loan debt forgiven after 10 years of government service and 120 direct loan repayments.
Labor and Wage Protections for Workers on Federal Projects would be repealed. (page 604). One effect of this would be to allow contractors to pay less than the prevailing regional wage.
Companies could stop paying overtime (page 592). Instead, employers could authorize time-off (compensatory time) on their schedule.
States could seek a waiver to opt out of federal overtime and minimum wage laws (page 605). This when the federal minimum wage is set at a piddling $7.25/hour.
Bosses could eliminate unions in the middle of a labor contract (page 603).
Also, the Project 2025 team urges Congress to pass Sen. JD Vance’s bill to let employers create their own bogus company-run unions (page 599).
There is a great deal more in Project 2025 to shock the conscience and make life even more miserable for workers, but you get the drift. If Trump manages to steal his way back into the White House, the malefactors who cobbled together this dreadful collection of medieval torments will not be far behind.
Project 2024 must be to keep these abominable haters and aspiring autocrats as far away from the levers of power as possible.
Dick Hermann
August 30, 2024
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